Part I, Chapter I

Summary

The novel begins with Lemuel Gulliver recounting the
story of his life, beginning with his family history. He is born
to a family in Nottinghamshire, the third of five sons. Although
he studies at Cambridge as a teenager, his family is too poor to
keep him there, so he is sent to London to be a surgeon’s apprentice.
There, under a man named James Bates, he learns mathematics and
navigation with the hope of traveling. When his apprenticeship ends,
he studies physics at Leyden.

He then becomes a surgeon aboard a ship called the Swallow for three
years. Afterward, he settles in London, working as a doctor, and
marries a woman named Mary Burton. His business begins to fail when
his patron dies, so he decides to go to sea again and travels for
six years. Although he has planned to return home at the end of this
time, he decides to accept one last job on a ship called the Antelope.

In the East Indies, the Antelope encounters
a violent storm in which twelve crewmen die. Six of the crewmembers,
including Gulliver, board a small rowboat to escape. Soon the rowboat
capsizes, and Gulliver loses track of his companions. They are never seen
again. Gulliver, however, swims safely to shore.

Gulliver lies down on the grass to rest, and soon he
falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds that his arms, legs, and
long hair have been tied to the ground with pieces of thread. He
can only look up, and the bright sun prevents him from seeing anything.
He feels something move across his leg and over his chest. He looks
down and sees, to his surprise, a six-inch-tall human carrying a
bow and arrow. At least forty more little people climb onto his
body. He is surprised and shouts loudly, frightening the little
people away. They return, however, and one of the little men cries
out, “Hekinah Degul.”

Gulliver struggles to get loose and finally succeeds
in breaking the strings binding his left arm. He loosens the ropes
tying his hair so he can turn to the left. In response, the little
people fire a volley of arrows into his hand and violently attack
his body and face. He decides that the safest thing to do is to
lie still until nightfall. The noise increases as the little people
build a stage next to Gulliver about a foot and a half off the ground.
One of them climbs onto it and makes a speech in a language that
Gulliver does not understand.

Gulliver indicates that he is hungry, and the little
people bring him baskets of meat. He devours it all and then shows
that he is thirsty, so they bring him two large barrels of wine.
Gulliver is tempted to pick up forty or fifty of the little people
and throw them against the ground, but he decides that he has made
them a promise of goodwill and is grateful for their hospitality.
He is also struck by their bravery, since they climb onto his body
despite his great size.